If you grew up playing video games in the `90s then you’d no doubt have played tonnes of RTS games. You had the Command & Conquer series and Starcraft for futuristic combat, Warcraft and Warhammer 40K for high-fantasy skirmishes and then there was Age of Empires for historical battles. Quite a few of us thank the Age of Empires franchise for piquing our interest in History. “An army marches on its stomach”, said Napoleon Bonaparte, or at least the voice actor did in AOE2, the most memorable game from the entire franchise. One that has left lasting memories that have survived more than two decades. Every AOE game that came after it tried hard to step into its shoes. There was Age of Mythology which went its own way detracting from history and delving into mythology, while Age of Empires 3 turned things upside down with a new engine. They all fell short. And over the years, true RTS games have taken a backseat to action-packed first-person action adventure titles. Brainless is the way to go if you want to earn money from gaming.
We don’t know if Microsoft had planned AOE4 all along or if it was that one redditor who asked Bill Gates for it in his AMA that triggered it all. All we can say is that we’re thankful for another proper RTS title after all these years. Here’s what we felt about the game.
Age of Empires IV – Visuals and Audio
Relic Games does a great job with the graphics in Age of Empires IV. It is very much the true successor to AOE2, unlike AOE3. AOE 3 made a drastic change to the way the players interacted with the map and the way cutscenes played out and that didn’t go down with a lot of fans for that reason. AOE4 goes back to how AOE2 did things and takes the visuals up a notch or two. Just enough to make the game feel modern and look aesthetically pleasing but not too much that it feels completely out of place in the franchise. In a way, you could say that like all RTS games, AOE4 is built in such a way that your PC doesn’t crawl to a standstill once you build hundreds of units and place tens of buildings into mid or late-game. So no, this doesn’t kill your system the way Sid Meier’s Civilisation games do.
The level of detail for buildings and units is quite decent for a game that’s played from 30,000 foot view. But don’t expect it to scale once you zoom in. The units seem fairly lacking in detail up close and that’s entirely forgivable. After all, this is Age of Empires and not Total War.
We played the game on a system built using the Intel Core i9-10900K coupled with an NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti and the frame rates were consistently in the higher 70s to lower 80s. The game is optimised for processors with higher frequencies and isn’t as multi-threaded as many of its contemporaries so don’t expect performance to scale with a higher core-count CPU. There is a slight sluggishness when you move the frame around which is quite irksome considering that this is an RTS game wherein there is a lot of camera movement. You do get used to it after a while but we feel this should be handled better.
Then there’s the HUD, one of the most important aspects of an RTS title. It’s very similar to what we’ve been used to in AOE2 and other RTS titles. The minimap is on the right with various map orientation and alert buttons whereas the building and unit options are on the left. The summary of resources is also on the left and not at the top of the screen. This makes it a bit easier since you don’t need to be shooting your eyes all over the HUD every three seconds. The alerts are on the right, this also includes attack alerts, since the minimap is where most RTS players rest their eyes, this is a welcome change. As for the keyboard shortcuts or hotkeys, Relic has chosen to go with a combination of QWERTY+keys rather than what we were used to in AOE2. That requires a bit of context since AOE2 also has different hotkeys. Before the HD version, you had to remember the hotkeys for each building and units. That changed with AOE2: HD and AOE4 has continued with the same. This makes the game more beginner friendly and helps get more gamers used to the hotkeys.
On the audio front, there is a vast assortment of audio cues from the units and buildings. And that changes as you progress through the ages. Your civilians pick up newer audio cues each time you upgrade and this makes for a richer experience. The background score is pleasant and makes use of a dynamic system of layering which is triggered by the number of combat actions on the screen. One moment, you could be sitting idly watching the villagers harvest crops with a soothing harp playing in the background and suddenly you’d be shocked to action as hundreds of horns in a way that would put Hans Zimmer to shame. The devs have included a combat score to the camera view which dynamically adds layers of music based on how deep you are in the throes of battle.
Overall, the visuals don’t alienate AOE4 from the Age of Empires franchise but at the same time, there’s a decent amount of improvement to the level of detail that makes the game stand up to its contemporaries.
Age of Empires IV – Campaigns
If you were hoping for campaigns that are carried forth with a nice voice-over just as we’d seen in Age of Empires II, then you might not get exactly what you were looking for. Yes, there is voice-over acting, but the focus has moved from the voice to the visuals. Instead of elaborate sketches done on parchment paper or sheepskin, we are met with visuals that involve live action roleplay and animated sketches that have been overlaid over the actual locations where the battles or engagements had come to be. Like Age of Empires II, there are plenty of informative videos that open up once you complete a campaign mission. In a way, the campaign is set up in a documentary fashion. While this might detract from the way things were done in Age of Empires II, we see this as a welcome change wherein the studios have leveraged modern methods of story-telling within the campaigns.
As for the campaigns themselves, there’s a lot more European theatres of war in Age of Empires IV. While this might make the campaign seem white-washed, we should note that the Age of Empires II: HD and Definitive Editions have both done a great job of covering some of the more popular South-East Asian and South American historical figures already. And honestly, the European conflicts have been documented in better detail in the history books compared to other regions. Also, Age of Empires IV will have rich expansions just as much as the previous iterations so they needed to leave out some of the conflicts for later expansions.
Age of Empires IV – Gameplay
The civilisations in Age of Empires IV are more distinguished from each other than ever before. Back in Age of Empires II, we had most of the technology tree being the same across the entire gamut of playable civilisations. Only a couple of unique technologies and one or two unique units were the only differentiators aside from the civilisation bonuses. In Age of Empires IV, the civilisation bonuses are much more diverse and the units as well as the buildings are much differentiated. However, the number of playable civilisations are far lesser than what we saw in Age of Empires II.
It’s not just cosmetic changes that make the buildings and units seem apart, even the way they function is differentiated. For example, the Mongols have unique buildings and the proximity of certain buildings to others, enable additional tech and features. Also, certain buildings can only be built on geographical features so you’ll have to fight your way to get that built. This adds an element of balance to what appears to be a powerful civilisation.
Age of Empires IV – Multiplayer
Speaking of balance, certain civilisations can seem unbalanced at first sight but as you figure out the mechanics and counters, you’ll be able to better utilise units and buildings. We had tonnes of victories in multiplayer battles with the English civilisation at the onset but as we went through more battles, the French and Russian civilisations seem to be more powerful and even in some cases, broken.
Naval combat is equally interesting. Most players tend to focus on terrestrial combat and are well-versed with terrestrial combat mechanics and naval combat mechanics are often ignored. This would appear to be the case again in Age of Empires IV as the number of water maps in Age of Empires is limited and so are the buildings and the units that they produce. It only seems natural for Naval theatres of war to be on the backburner since there are so few in comparison to terrestrial battles.
Cheese, steak, Jimmy’s
There’s no denying that everyone who has played any Age of Empires game has enjoyed a run at the game with the cheat codes. Whether you’d stockpiled enough resources to end world hunger and build every kid a rollercoaster in their backyard, or if you were zooming across the map in a Shelby Cobra car shooting tonnes of lead at your enemies, or if you’d be bestowed the gift of divine sight that could unravel the fog of war permanently; cheat codes were fun and added a level of silliness to the game. Unfortunately, AOE4 does not come with any cheat code at launch. We’re not saying that it will be the case permanently, but if you were planning on finishing the game over a weekend with a little help, then think again.
Age of Empires IV – Verdict
Age of Empires IV is very much a hard-core RTS game and a true successor to Age of Empires II. It comes with detailed campaigns, differentiated civilisations and plenty of quality of life upgrades that make it approachable to everyone. We hope it triggers a renewed interest in RTS games for the masses because the fans are certainly hooked.
SKOAR! – 9/10
MOAR!
Developers – Relic Entertainment, World’s Edge
Publisher – Xbox Game Studios
Platforms – Microsoft Windows
Price – INR 2,499
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Mithun Mohandas
Mithun Mohandas is an Indian technology journalist with 10 years of experience covering consumer technology. He is currently employed at Digit in the capacity of a Managing Editor. Mithun has a background in Computer Engineering and was an active member of the IEEE during his college days. He has a penchant for digging deep into unravelling what makes a device tick. If there's a transistor in it, Mithun's probably going to rip it apart till he finds it. At Digit, he covers processors, graphics cards, storage media, displays and networking devices aside from anything developer related. As an avid PC gamer, he prefers RTS and FPS titles, and can be quite competitive in a race to the finish line. He only gets consoles for the exclusives. He can be seen playing Valorant, World of Tanks, HITMAN and the occasional Age of Empires or being the voice behind hundreds of Digit videos. View Full Profile
